Sport fishing is rooted in antiquity. Even when his existence depended upon his success in catching fish, man found pleasure in that pursuit and used fishing as a recreational activity. Fish do not always swim near the banks of a river. Cognizant of this, early man saw the advantage of using a rod (stick or branch) which allowed him to reach over river banks and angle the bait to where the fish were located, thus the name "angling" given to sport fishing.
One of the basic methods of angling is fly-fishing. In this method of fishing an artificial fly, i.e., an imitation of an insect or other natural food, is used to lure the fish. Such a method has been employed by sportsmen for thousands of years. In Roman times it was recorded that Macedonians caught trout with artificial flies.
When fly-fishing, an artificial fly is cast to the fish by means of a flexible rod and a thick line. The thick line, which is known as a fly-line, is tapered to a fine line to which a "leader" is attached. The leader is often made of NYLON monofilament which may be tapered to a fine point, "tippet", to which the fly is attached. The tippet is, hopefully, invisible to the fish, creating the impression that the artificial fly is a free floating insect. The force to initiate the cast is provided by an appropriate motion of the fisherman's arm and wrist. This force is transmitted to the rod, and a combination of the spring-like action of the rod, the weight of the line, and the taper of the line and leader allows a smooth transmission of the force to achieve distance and delicacy in presenting the fly to the fish.
In the process of casting, the fly-line is often extended as far to the rear of the individual doing the casting as it is to front of him. Sometimes the fly inadvertently gets hooked or entangled in an object to the rear, such as a branch or leaf of a tree, from which disengagement is often difficult. A good casting technique propels the fly high off the ground. Consequently, when a fly is caught in a tree it is usually at a height that is difficult to reach. Pulling on the fly-line to draw down the branch so that it can be taken in hand is not often productive. Since the leader tapers to very thin line, it is concomitantly weak and will generally break under the tension created therein by the pulling force. The fly-fisher usually is not fortunate enough to find a long stick that has a conveniently located hooked shaped branch which could be used for hooking over the offending branch to draw it down.
In the prior art artificial flies have been retrieved with special long sticks or telescoping rods with hooked ends, devices which cut the branch. These are often eschewed by fly-fishers because they are burdensome to carry and may damage the tree. The fishing rods and wading staffs often carried by fly-fishers are, by themselves, unsuitable implements for retrieving a tree entangled artificial fly. Further, the fishing rod, which is generally an expensive item, may be damaged in the retrieval process if it is used carelessly.
It is an object of this invention to provide a device which is (1) versatile in allowing a fly-fisher several practical options to effectively and safely retrieve a hooked or entangled fly and (2) very compact, lightweight, and easy to carry.